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Faerie Rings / Fairy Rings

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Anonymous

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i've got one that develops in my frontyard and one in my backyard. i often worry about the faeries in the frontyard; they're playing dangerously close to the road...big trucks and whatnot. their both about 4 feet in diameter.
 
I wouldn't worry about them , they will stay inside the ring mostly . You could plant faerie repelling plants around the edges of your garden to keep them from wanting to stray out .
 
The bigist one i ever saw is somewhere or other in Cambridgeshire (it was viewed from the bus) and it had a radious of about 20-25 feet.

I just stared at it open mouthed.

What plants repel faries?
 
thanks for the info. Now I can keep the pesky little bugers away.

I can't be botherd with their duplicity.
 
it must be posible to gage the age og a ring from its diameter..any Toadstoolologists about?
 
synthwerk said:
i've got one that develops in my frontyard and one in my backyard. i often worry about the faeries in the frontyard; they're playing dangerously close to the road...big trucks and whatnot. their both about 4 feet in diameter.
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What's a faerie ring?
 
It's a ring of toadstools caused by the circular dispersion of the spores . . . or summat like that. Or there's a ring of darker grass where the fungi have been. I think. We have 'em on the grass outside my office window. But we don't have any fairies, just phantom airmen.

Carole
 
Given the growth rate mensioned in the article the ring I saw in Cambridgeshire must have been undisdurbed for quite some time.

It was slap bang in the middle of good land too.

Well it's good to see that some people are keeping superstitions alive and well in our enlightend age.
 
Don't anyone enter a fairy ring, or they'll be carried off by the little folk . . .

Carole
 
And they'll be stuck there for years! Be carefull out there!

Just incase you do stray into one you should get one of your friends to enter in after you with his coat tales being held by a third friend (if you have 3 friends that is) who can then pull you out. Otherwise you may find yourself caught up in the exticy of the farie's dancing.

And you at the back. Yes you. Stop snigering.
 
carole said:
Don't anyone enter a fairy ring, or they'll be carried off by the little folk . . .

Carole
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Or at the very least a slap for not asking first!;) :D
 
synthwerk said:
any ever catch a glimpse Stray Sod?
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I have not but I'll keep my eyes open but since I live in the city the chances are slim to say the least.
 
Here are some giant fairy rings....

Invasion fear as weird rings appear on Minnow's pitch.

Soccer Minnows Albion Rovers fear an alien invasion - after weird black rings appeared on their pitch overnight.
UFO experts believe the twelve circles, only visible from the air, show the clubs crumbling Cliftonhill stadium is being used as a secret flying saucer site.

Last night Jimmy Lyndsay, assistant boss at the Third Division
strugglers, said: "I can assure you if we do see any aliens we will try
to snap them up on the Bosman free transfer ruling. Whatever caused these circles it wasn't us running rings round the opposition."

The marking's at Rover's ground in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, were spotted by a photographer taking photograph's from a helicopter.

Each ring measures around five yards in diameter and they cover half of the patch............but the alien invasion has failed to score with furious groundsman Hugh McBride, he said : "I would like to know what is going on. I have never seen anything like it before.........some of the circles seem to plot out a path to the goalpost's, so maybe somebody is trying to tell us something."

coatbridge.gif
 
I remember the Albion Rovers crop circles story. Never thought of them as fairy rings though...
 
We get one in our garden which "mushrooms" up over night on occasions.

I have purposely stood in the middle of it waiting for the wee people to carry me off, but so far I'm still here.

Perhaps they know what I'm up to and just won't co-operate! :rolleyes:
 
HAS THIS CIRCLE OF FUNGI BEEN CAUSED BY THE FAIRIES OR THE FAIRY RING FUNGUS?


10:30 - 29 July 2004

A Circle of mushrooms which has cropped up in a Lincolnshire garden is causing a conflict between the residents and the experts.

The ring of fungi has appeared on the lawn of Margaret and Marcus Hope's house, in Lancaster Drive, Scampton, near Lincoln.

The family believe the circle is caused by mystical fairies which have planted the mushrooms and are living among them.

But experts are disputing the claim and believe the ring is the result of the fairy ring mushroom - which naturally occurs in circular formations.

The chief supporter of the mystical fairy theory is the couple's daughter Lydia.

She said: "I think it's a fairy ring - the mushrooms have been positioned by the fairies and they live there. Of course, I cannot see the fairies because they are too small and shy."

Lydia (seven) spotted the mushrooms three days ago and there are now hundreds of small cream coloured fungi across the lawn.

She added: "I like the round circle but unfortunately some of my friends have trod on them.

"Once the mushrooms die I think the fairies will go into the countryside and live among the trees."

Since the original sighting, a further mushroom circle has appeared in the garden.

Mrs Hope said: "We have lived here two years and have never seen these mushrooms before.

"Suddenly there are two large circles of mushrooms lying next to each other - it looks like a pair of spectacles. We all like them, especially Lydia, they just seem like a lot of fun."

The family have said they will not be mowing their lawn for fear of destroying the fungi.

Mrs Hope added: "Lydia seems to think the fairies have created the circles and I agree with her.

"It's the first time we have seen them so it seems a plausible explanation."

But mushroom expert Ken Rowland (77), of Dene Close, Skellingthorpe, Lincoln, said there was a scientific explanation.

He said: "A spore from the fairy ring fungus has landed on their lawn and germinated.

"Each year the roots from the mushroom spread outward by 10cm, eating dead grass roots, and then another mushroom appears.

"This is what causes the circle - the fungi are not doing any harm to the lawn so do not need to be destroyed."

Last Wednesday the Echo reported on David Wells, from Branston, near Lincoln, who also discovered a circle in his garden.

He said: "I have no idea what has caused it, though somebody must have an explanation. It may be called a fairy circle but I don't believe in fairies - there must be a more logical explanation."

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Has a mushroom circle appeared in your garden? Write to Your View, Lincolnshire Echo, Brayford Wharf East, LN5 7AT.
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Source
 
The family have said they will not be mowing their lawn for fear of destroying the fungi.
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Yeah, right - until the grass is up around their little pointed ears, and the postman has to have a life line to drop the bills off :cool:

Before too long there'll be another source for ABC's in Lincolnshire!
 
Perfect circles of trees are also called fairy rings. They actually grow around the base of a large stump which eventually disappears, but they are usually in a perfect circle. I live not far from the redwood forests and there are lots of them up there. One is huge, at least 25 feet across.

I recall being in Yosemite during my wilder younger years. We took shrooms and I was convinced that the shaft of sunlight peeking thru two of the trees of a fairy ring was in fact a door into fairyland.

Well, hey, they were really good shrooms!
 
Our last house had two fairy rings in the back garden, one about three foot across and t'other just a foot across.

Tried standing in them at night but nowt happened. Ah well.

They seemed to stand up quite well to regular mowing.

Can't say the same for the fairies though. Ever tried getting lumps of fairy out of the mower mechanics? :cross eye
 
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Fairy rings are the product of rainfall

November 28, 2004

What with the heavy rains of late, expect to find one of nature's truly marvelous spectacles, right in your own yard. These are fairy rings, circles of mushrooms that can appear overnight on our lawns or pastures. It was once believed that this circle of mushrooms marked the place where fairies danced at night, and so the name. Others believed that it was the location where the devil churned butter, leaving a ring of deadly mushrooms. And others said that it was caused by the scorching breath of dragons.

In truth, fairy rings actually mark the edges of an underground network of hyphae, the lateral branches of a growing mushroom. The majority of the plant lives underground, but with the right circumstances, such as heavy rains, the plant sends fruiting bodies above ground. The mushroom, as we know it, is only the reproductive part of the plant, the flowering head that will produce spores. The large network of filaments remains hidden below ground, living on decaying wood, rich humus, and similar dark, damp objects.

Normally, fairy rings occur in the same places year after year, growing larger with each flowering season. A fairy ring may be up to 40 feet across in 20 years. In Great Britain, some fairy rings have been estimated at 400 to 600 years old.

Most often, the mushrooms that form the fairy rings are "fairy-ring mushrooms," a small, pale brown, toxic species. But fairy rings can be made by numerous species, including shaggy manes, puffballs, mica caps, inky caps, sulphur mushrooms, morels, parasols, and many others.

Mushrooms are actually fungi, non-flowering plants that lack true leaves, stems, and roots. Nor do they possess chlorophyll, and so are unable to manufacture their own food. They reproduce by sending a flowering head that we know as a mushroom above ground, which develops billions of tiny spores. These dust-like spores can be spread by the wind, scattered by raindrops, attached to wildlife or humans, or numerous other ways. They actually are able to ride through the air for thousands of miles. Many will eventually land and germinate.

Are the mushrooms that form fairy rings poisonous? Most are, but others can be eaten. And some can be poisonous to one person but not to others. So, unless you know what species is which, it is safest to just admire them for what they are, one of nature's most fascinating plants.
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Source
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Last week we went to Barnard Castle and there was a proper 'fairy ring' of some sort of fungi on the grass inside the castle - well, not a ring; a heart shape. I even wondered if someone planted them, it looked so deliberate. Husband photo'd it - but the camera's in the car at his work, right now. If I remember in the next few days will try and put the photo up.
 
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Do 'magic' mushrooms ever grow in a ring? Obviously I am trying to link weird experiences associated with fairy rings with their consciousness altering properties.
 
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